The Boulder District Attorney's Office on Monday filed a lawsuit in Boulder District Court seeking to have a home at 330 Collyer St. in Longmont declared a public nuisance.

Owner Silverio Nuanez, 74, was arrested last week on a warrant for failing to comply with terms and conditions of a drug possession conviction and remained in the Boulder County Jail on Monday when the lawsuit was filed.

Neighbors have been complaining about activities at Nuanez's home for weeks, noting that police have raided the house three times looking for drug activity. During the most recent raid in December, police found 13 people in the house, including an infant. They characterized 330 Collyer St. as a flophouse and noted a bed bug infestation.

The lawsuit claims "the property, including the home located on it, is a place where known parolees and other congregate; where assaults and other physical disturbances, narcotics use and distribution and other illegal conduct occurs with unusual and increasing frequency and where neighbors reasonably believe themselves to be threatened in the use and enjoyment of their own properties and public places around the property."

If successful, the lawsuit would allow a judge to place restrictions on the use of the property, including who may live there or visit.

The owners are listed as Nuanez and the Estate of Elaine Maness. Longmont Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur said Maness, who died in 2009, was Nuanez's wife.

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The lawsuit asks that the property be seized and closed and that the court limit occupancy to Nuanez, one blood relative, and any related children younger than 11, "and sharply limit who and how many people may come and go onto the property."

In addition, the lawsuit seeks to limit visitors to no more than four non-residents at any time and to prohibit anyone serving parole, probation, work release or community corrections from visiting or living at the home.

Police have been called to complaints at the home 114 times since 2008 for a range of issues, such as disturbances, assaults, trespassing, harassment, loitering and noise, according to the lawsuit. Police investigations have included operations in which drugs like methamphetamine were bought there.

Some arrests were thwarted because there were so many people at the home that it was unsafe for officers. Police used the SWAT team to raid the house in August 2011, October 2012 and December 2013, according to the lawsuit.

Nuanez has admitted to the activities at his home and failed to call for help as police advised, the lawsuit says.

Nuanez (Matthew Jonas / Longmont Times-Call)

Nuanez told the Times-Call last month that he was complying with orders to clean up the house, which code enforcement confirmed, and he didn't understand why his neighbors could have visitors but it was considered criminal if he did.

According to the lawsuit, neighbors have suffered fear, insomnia and other mental stress from activities at the home. In one case, a brick thrown through a stained glass window caused more than $1,000 in damage. Neighbors have invested in fences and cameras to secure their properties.

"One neighbor has felt it necessary to teach her children self-defense techniques in order to ensure they come and go safely from their residence," the lawsuit reports, adding that all neighbors refuse to let children play outside.

A security guard at St. John the Baptist Church, located across Collyer Street from the house, reported routinely finding trespassers using drugs purchased at Nuanez's house. The church sought a restraining order against one man known to visit 330 Collyer St. who routinely disrupted Mass and

Staff members at the church's school reported seeing broken meth pipes and used syringes on and around the property. Raids at the home have required lockdowns at the school.

Nuanez has 21 days to file a response to the lawsuit or he could face a default judgment.

This is the second lawsuit of its kind in Boulder County. The first was also in Longmont and, police say, the results in that case were positive.

A notice of condemnation has been posted at 330 Collyer St., where police found 13 people, including an infant, and an infestation of bed bugs during a December raid. (LEWIS GEYER / Longmont Times-Call)

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